:Churchill War Rooms

In 1936 the Air Ministry, the British government department responsible for the Royal Air Force, believed that in the event of war enemy aerial bombing of London would cause up to 200,000 casualties per week.{{sfn|Holmes|2009|p=15}} British government commissions under Warren Fisher and Sir James Rae in 1937 and 1938 considered that key government offices should be dispersed from central London to the suburbs,For example, the war room facility codenamed Paddock in Dollis Hill, north west London, was completed in June 1940. and nonessential offices to the Midlands or North West.{{Sfn|Holmes|2009|pp=22–3}} Pending this dispersal, in March 1938 Sir Hastings Ismay, then Deputy Secretary of the Committee of Imperial Defence, ordered an Office of Works survey of Whitehall to identify a suitable site for a temporary emergency government centre for use during bombing raids.{{Sfn|Asbury|2019|p=8-9}} Although it is commonplace for present-day governments to operate such facilities, this was the first time the British government had required one, and as such there was no precedent for how or where it should be built, or what it should contain.{{sfn|Asbury|2019|p=7}} In May, as German troops were gathering on the border with Czechoslovakia,{{Sfn|Asbury|2019|p=8-9}} the Office concluded the most suitable site was the basement of the New Public Offices (NPO),{{Sfn|Holmes|2009|p=23}} a government building located on the corner of Horse Guards Road and Great George Street, near Parliament Square. The building now accommodates HM Treasury.{{Cite web|url=http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/about_1hgr.htm |title=The Treasury Building: 1 Horse Guards Road |author=HM Treasury |author-link=HM Treasury |year=2010 |access-date=25 August 2010}}

File:Londres 189..jpg Work to convert the basement of the New Public Offices began, under the supervision of Ismay and Sir Leslie Hollis, in June 1938.{{Cite web|archive-url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100806153441/http://cwr.iwm.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.923 |archive-date=6 August 2010 |url=http://cwr.iwm.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.923 |title=History of the Cabinet War Rooms: Constructing the war Rooms |author=Imperial War Museum |author-link=Imperial War Museum |year=2010 |work=Churchill War Rooms |access-date=17 April 2013}} The work included installing communications and broadcasting equipment, soundproofing, ventilation and reinforcement.{{sfn|Holmes|2009|pp=28–9}} Because the War Rooms are below the level of the River Thames, flood doors and pumps were installed to prevent flooding.{{Sfn|Asbury|2019|p=10}} Meanwhile, by the summer of 1938 the War Office, Admiralty and Air Ministry had developed the concept of a Central War Room that would facilitate discussion and decision-making between the Chiefs of Staff of the armed forces.

As ultimate authority lay with the civilian government the Cabinet, or a smaller War Cabinet, would require close access to senior military figures. This implied accommodation close to the armed forces' Central War Room.{{Sfn|Holmes|2009|p=18}} In May 1939 it was decided that the Cabinet would be housed within this room.{{sfn|Holmes|2009|p=23}} In August 1939, with war imminent and protected government facilities in the suburbs not yet ready, the War Rooms became operational on 27 August 1939, only days before the invasion of Poland on 1 September, and Britain's declaration of war on Germany on 3 September.{{Sfn|Asbury|2019|p=8-9}}

Staff accessed the War Rooms via the main entrance of the NPO, and once inside the building, descended down Staircase 15, entering near to the Churchills' kitchen.{{Sfn|Asbury|2019|p=26}} During its operational life, two of the Cabinet War Rooms were of particular importance. Once operational, the facility's Map Room was in constant use and manned around the clock by officers of the Royal Navy, British army and Royal Air Force. These officers were responsible for producing a daily intelligence summary for the King, Prime Minister and the military Chiefs of Staff.{{cite book |title=Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms (guidebook) |year=2005 |page=13 }}

The other key room was the Cabinet Room, where the Prime Minister and his key advisers would meet with the three Chiefs of Staff{{Dash}}the heads of the army, navy, and air force. Secrecy was paramount, and two sentries were posted outside the door during meetings, which would sometimes continue into the small hours of the morning.{{Sfn|Asbury|2019|p=28}} Until the opening of the Battle of France, which began on 10 May 1940, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's war cabinet met at the War Rooms only once, in October 1939.{{sfn|Holmes|2009|p=42}} Following Winston Churchill's appointment as Prime Minister, Churchill visited the Cabinet Room in May 1940 and declared: 'This is the room from which I will direct the war'.{{sfn|Holmes|2009|p=55}} In total 115 Cabinet meetings were held at the Cabinet War Rooms,{{cite book |title=Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms (guidebook) |year=2005 |page=5}} the last on 28 March 1945, when the German V-weapon bombing campaign came to an end.{{cite book |title=Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms (guidebook) |year=2005 |page=19}}

File:Cab War Rooms 3.jpg, Churchill's Minister of Information.]]On 22 October 1940, during the Blitz bombing campaign against Britain, it was decided to increase the protection of the Cabinet War Rooms by the installation of a massive layer of concrete known as 'the Slab'.{{sfn|Holmes|2009|p=67}} Up to 5 feet (1.5 metres) thick, the Slab was progressively extended and by spring 1941 the increased protection had enabled the Cabinet War Rooms to expand to three times their original size.{{Sfn|Holmes|2009|p=80}} While the usage of many of the War Rooms' individual rooms changed over the course of the war, the facility included dormitories for staff, private bedrooms for military officers and senior ministers, and rooms for typists or telephone switchboard operators.{{cite book |title=Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms (guidebook) |year=2005 |page=11}}

File:Clementine's Room.jpg's room]]

Two other notable rooms include the Transatlantic Telephone Room and Churchill's office-bedroom. From 1943, a SIGSALY code-scrambling encrypted telephone was installed in the basement of Selfridges, Oxford Street connected to a similar terminal in the Pentagon building.{{cite web|url=http://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic_heritage/center_crypt_history/publications/sigsaly_story.shtml|title=Sigsaly Story|author=Patrick D. Weadon|publisher=National Security Agency|access-date=3 January 2012}} This enabled Churchill to speak securely with American President Roosevelt in Washington, with the first conference taking place on 15 July 1943. Later extensions were installed to both 10 Downing Street and the specially constructed Transatlantic Telephone Room within the Cabinet War Rooms.{{cite book |title=Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms (guidebook) |year=2005 |page=7url= }}

Churchill's office-bedroom, open from 27 July 1940,{{Sfn|Asbury|2019|p=16}} included BBC broadcasting equipment; Churchill made four wartime broadcasts from the Cabinet War Rooms, the first being on 11 September 1940.{{Sfn|Asbury|2019|p=13}} Although the office room was also fitted out as a bedroom, Churchill rarely slept underground,{{cite book |title=Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms (guidebook) |year=2005 |page=16}} preferring to sleep at 10 Downing Street or the No.10 Annexe, a flat in the New Public Offices directly above the Cabinet War Rooms.{{sfn|Holmes|2009|pp=80–1}} His daughter Mary Soames often slept in the bedroom allocated to Mrs Churchill.{{sfn|Holmes|2009|p=83}}

Below the level of the Cabinet War Rooms, a further sub-basement nicknamed "the Dock" was provided for staff members to sleep, so that they didn't have to make their way home through heavy air raids at the end of their shifts. As the name suggests, the Dock was not a comfortable place. The ventilation system rattled throughout the night, mice were common, occupants had to stoop due to low ceilings, and there were no flushing toilets, only chemical ones. Ismay's personal secretary, Betty Green, described it as "revolting".{{Sfn|Asbury|2019|p=30-31}}

Rooms 60 Right and 60A were used as a telephone switchboard and a typing pool respectively. Due to the rudimentary nature of photocopying equipment available at the time, up to 11 typists were stationed in the typing pool at any one time, typing out copies of meeting minutes by hand.{{Sfn|Asbury|2019|p=36-37}}

On 15 August 1945, Japan surrendered, bringing an end to the war. The following day, the lights in the Map Room were simply turned off and the staff vacated their offices. Several were cleared and used for other purposes, but the Cabinet Room, Map Room, Transatlantic Telephone Room and Churchill's bedroom were preserved for their historic value.{{Sfn|Asbury|2019|p=22}}

Their maintenance became the responsibility of the Ministry of Works. In March 1948 the question of public access to the War Rooms was raised in Parliament and the Minister responsible, Charles Key MP, considered that 'it would not be practicable to throw open for inspection by the general public accommodation which forms part of an office where confidential work is carried on'.Hansard, 8 March 1948; 'War Cabinet Rooms HC Deb 8 March 1948 vol 448 c115W' [https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1948/mar/08/war-cabinet-rooms#S5CV0448P0_19480308_CWA_27 Hansard 1803-2005]. Accessed 20 January 2010. Even so, a tour was organised for journalists on 17 March, with members of the press being welcomed by Lord Ismay and shown around the Rooms by their custodian, Mr. George Rance.'War Cabinet Rooms: Scene of Historic Counsels' (18 March 1948) The Times p.2 col.E

While the Rooms were not open to the general public, they could be visited by appointment, with access being restricted to small groups.Hansard 6 December 1978; 'War Room, Storey’s Gate HC Deb 6 December 1978 vol 959 cc681-2W' [https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1978/dec/06/war-room-storeys-gate#S5CV0959P0_19781206_CWA_140 Hansard 1803-2005]. Accessed 18 March 2009. Even so, by the 1970s (with responsibility for the Rooms having passed to the Department for the Environment in 1975) tens of thousands of requests to visit the Rooms were being received every year, of which only 5,000 were successful. Meanwhile, the atmospheric conditions of the site, being dry and dusty, were having a detrimental effect on the rooms' furnishings and historic maps and other documents. The prospect was raised of decanting the contents of the Rooms to an established museum, with the National Army Museum and Imperial War Museum being suggested as candidates. In the event, £7,000 was secured to conserve the material in situ.

File:Churchillmuseumcabinetwarrooms.JPG Steps with the Treasury building on the right and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the left.]]

In 1974, the Imperial War Museum was approached by the government and asked to consider taking over the administration of the site. A feasibility study was prepared but came to nothing, the museum feeling it did not have sufficient resources to commit to the War Rooms.During the 1970s the Imperial War Museum also became formally responsible for the former Royal Air Force aerodrome at Duxford in Cambridgeshire (1976) and the decommissioned Royal Navy warship {{HMS|Belfast|C35|6}} in 1978. In 1981, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, known as an admirer of Winston Churchill, expressed the hope that the Rooms could be opened before the next general election. The Imperial War Museum was again approached. Initially still reluctant, the museum's trustees decided in January 1982 that the museum would take over the site, on the understanding that the government would make the necessary resources available. The initial costs were to be met by the Department for the Environment and the War Rooms intended to be self-supporting thereafter.{{cite journal

| author = Finch, Cressida

| date = Summer 2009

| title = A short history of the Cabinet War Rooms 1945-1984

| journal = Despatches: The Magazine of the Friends of the Imperial War Museum

| pages = 18–22

| location = London

| publisher = Imperial War Museum

| access-date = 25 April 2012

| url = http://archive.iwm.org.uk/upload/pdf/pp18-21_CWR-spreads.pdf

}}{{Dead link|date=November 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

The Rooms were opened to the public by Thatcher on 4 April 1984 in a ceremony attended by Churchill family members and former Cabinet War Rooms staff. At first the Rooms were administered by the museum on behalf of the Department for the Environment; in 1989 responsibility was transferred to the Imperial War Museum.Hansard, 23 March 1989; 'Cabinet War Rooms: HC Deb 23 March 1989 vol 149 c780W' [https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1989/mar/23/cabinet-war-rooms#S6CV0149P0_19890323_CWA_648 Hansard 1803-2005]. Accessed 18 March 2009

Following a major expansion in 2003, a suite of rooms used as accommodation by Churchill, his wife and close associates, was added to the museum. The restoration of these rooms, which after the war had been stripped of furnishings and used for storage, cost £7.5 million.{{cite news |last=Kennedy|first=Maev |date=9 April 2003 |newspaper=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/apr/09/arts.past |title=Restored underground apartments opened to public|access-date=28 July 2009}}

In 2005 the War Rooms were rebranded as the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, with {{cvt|850 |m2}} of the site redeveloped as a biographical museum exploring Churchill's life, the development of which cost a further £6 million raised from private funds. The museum makes extensive use of audiovisual technology, with the centrepiece being a {{convert|15|m|-1|adj=on}} interactive table that enables visitors to access digitised material, particularly from the Churchill Archives Centre.Waterfield, Giles 'The Churchill Museum: Ministry of sound' Museum Practice No.30 (Summer 2005) pp.18-21For details of the development of the Churchill Museum, see {{Cite web | author=Pickford, John | title=Making the Churchill Museum | url=http://www.cassonmann.co.uk/publications/making-the-churchill-museum | publisher=Casson Mann | date=March 2008 | access-date=25 April 2012 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220134228/http://www.cassonmann.co.uk/publications/making-the-churchill-museum | archive-date=20 February 2012 }} The museum is set out in chronological chunks, beginning with Churchill's appointment as Prime Minister in 1940 and going up to the end of his life in 1965 before starting again with his childhood and returning to May 1940.{{Sfn|Asbury|2019|p=47}} The Churchill Museum won the 2006 Council of Europe Museum Prize.Council of Europe (2009) Council of Europe Museum Prize (since 1977)

[http://assembly.coe.int/Museum/PrixMuseeCE/PrizeWinners.asp assembly.coe.int]. Accessed 22 January 2010.

In May 2010 the name of the museum was shortened to Churchill War Rooms.{{cite web |archive-url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100806154809/http://cwr.iwm.org.uk/upload/pdf/CWRMayHalf-termpressrelease2010.pdf |archive-date=6 August 2010|url=http://cwr.iwm.org.uk/upload/pdf/CWRMayHalf-termpressrelease2010.pdf |title=Churchill War Rooms – May Half-term 2010: Press Release |author=Imperial War Museum |author-link=Imperial War Museum |date=11 May 2010 |access-date=22 September 2010}}

During 2009–2011 the museum received over 300,000 visitors a year.{{Cite web|url=http://www.alva.org.uk/details.cfm?p=423|title=Visits made in 2011 to visitor attractions in membership with ALVA|publisher=Association of Leading Visitor Attractions|access-date=25 April 2012}}

In June 2012 the museum's entrance was redesigned by Clash Architects with consulting engineers Price & Myers.{{cite news |author= |date=2012 |title=Churchill War Rooms entrance |newspaper=The Architects' Journal |url=http://www.ajbuildingslibrary.co.uk/projects/display/id/5335 |access-date=4 August 2014}} Intended to act as a 'beacon' for the museum,{{cite web |date=25 May 2012 |title=New Churchill War Rooms entrance will reference military hardware, Jacob Epstein and Henry Moore |url=http://www.culture24.org.uk/history%20%26%20heritage/war%20%26%20conflict/world%20war%20two/art387005 |access-date=19 June 2012 |work=culture24.org.uk}} the new external design included a faceted bronze entranceway, and the interior showed the cleaned and restored Portland stone walls of the Treasury building and Clive Steps. The design was described as 'appropriately martial and bulldog-like' and as 'a fusion of architecture and sculpture'.{{cite web |author=Rose, Steve |date=1 June 2012 |title=Constructive criticism: the week in architecture |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/jun/01/week-architecture-dagenham-park-school |access-date=19 June 2012 |work=The Guardian}}{{cite web |author=Waite, Richard |date=8 June 2012 |title=Clash opens new Churchill War Rooms entrance |url=http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-news/clash-opens-new-churchill-war-rooms-entrance/8631414.article |access-date=19 June 2012 |work=Architects' Journal}}

During 2019 the museum received over 600,000 visitors.

As with all of the sites of the Imperial War Museum, the museum was closed to the public from 17 March to 31 July 2020 inclusive, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.{{Cite web|url=https://www.forcesnews.com/news/imperial-war-museums-welcome-visitors-back-after-lockdown |title=Imperial War Museums Welcome Visitors Back After Lockdown |date=1 August 2020 |via=forcesnews.com}} A further shutdown, for the same reasons, was in place from 16 December 2020 to 18 May 2021 inclusive.{{Cite web|url=https://the-past.com/news/iwm-announces-reopening-dates-with-missingmuseums-campaign/ |title=IWM announces reopening dates with #MissingMuseums campaign |date=8 April 2021 |via=the-past.com}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite book |last=Asbury |first=Jonathan |title=Churchill War Rooms Guidebook |publisher=IWM Publishing |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-904897-55-2 |edition=6th |location=London}}
• {{Cite book

|last=Holmes

|first=Richard

|author-link=Richard Holmes (military historian)

|title=Churchill's Bunker: The Secret Headquarters at the Heart of Britain's Victory

|year=2009

|publisher=Profile Books Ltd

|location=London

|isbn=978-1-84668-225-4

}}

{{Commons category|Cabinet War Rooms}}

• {{official website|http://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/churchill-war-rooms}}
• [https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/yourcountry/collections/churchillexhibition/churchill-and-ww2/secret-session/ WW2: Parliament Secret Sessions – UK Parliament Living Heritage]

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{{Winston Churchill|state=expanded}}

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